Snow Day
by chocolate rules333
Summary: The kids of Waffle Island have a snow day! All poor Gill wants to do is stay inside and read.  Too bad for him, his friends will not let that happen.


**This is just a small one shot inspired by all the snow we recently got where I live. It was the fifth most on record yet it happened on a Friday night so we didn't even get one snow day out of it. To cheer myself up I decided to give the young residents of Waffle Island a snow day instead. This is a story about some of the marriageable characters in their childhood. It's mostly friendship with just tiny hints of the rival couples. It doesn't have that much of a plot but I enjoyed writing it. I hope you like it!**

It was early winter and Waffle Island had just received its first snow storm of the year. The small island had received so much snow that it had to cancel classes for the day. They couldn't even dig out the Town Hall. This left the twelve young residents with a glorious day of free time.

Eight year old Gill was perfectly content to curl up by the warm fire with a good book for the day. However, Gill's days rarely went as planned. "Gill!" he heard a women shout. He recognized the voice as his mother's. "Gill, your friends are here."

The young boy scrunched his nose. 'Friends' was a very loose term. They should have been called children he was forced to hang out with due to the fact that they were the only ones on the island. Sure, he actually rather liked them but he wouldn't admit it. "Mom, tell them to go away. I don't want to go outside."

"_Gill_," his mother warned sharply. He sighed, reluctantly got up from his father's comfy armchair, and clambered downstairs to the door. Outside stood eight children, each with noses red from crisp air, bushy winter coats, and wide grins on their faces.

"Gill, come on! This is the best snow we've ever had! It might be the best snow we'll ever have! In our life time! In eternity!" shouted Luke, the carpenter's enthusiastic son. He seemed extremely excited and a sled dangled behind him. Gill tried to think of an excuse to stay inside that his mother wouldn't disapprove of.

"Yeah, come outside, Gill," Owen, Luke's best friend, insisted. Gill was almost a year older than the future blacksmith but still was nearly a foot shorter than him. "It'll be tons of fun. You can read and study any old day."

"Come on, Gill," Phoebe squealed. "We've already sent Toby and Renee to retrieve Jin. You'll be the only one inside." Gill looked at the children there. Maya, Chase, Candace, Luna, and even Anissa stood with the others, smiling expectantly up at him, knowing he would have to give in. He had almost expected health conscious Anissa, one of the oldest children on the island, to insist they stay inside. But even her eyes were glowing with excitement.

"It's cold and snowy outside. Besides, Jin will never come. If he gets to stay inside then I get to too," Gill said. He ignored his mother's disapproving 'tut'.

Several of the children scowled at him. "Gill!"Luna screeched. "You are just being a big Grinch meanie head! Come outside, now!" Although Luna was the youngest of the island children she was also the feistiest and could easily control most of the kids. Even Gill was a bit afraid of her.

To Gill's dismay, Jin came around the corner. Despite the fact that he was nearly being dragged by Toby and Renee he was outside and ready for a day in the snow. Gill groaned while Luna smirked and several of the other kids giggled. "Good! Now you have no excuse. Hurry up, you're wasting our daylight!" Her speech was echoed by the others, urging him to get ready quickly. Gill might have been able to get out of it had his mother not been standing right behind him. However, he accepted defeat and went to grab his winter gear.

"Have fun," his mother called as Gill walked out the door. He mumbled an irritated reply and went to join the group of chattering children.

"Come on!" Luke shouted. He led the way to the best sledding hill in the Maple Lake District near the church. The blue haired boy dashed off with Owen and Phoebe on his tail. None of the others even attempted to keep up.

Maya was blabbering on and on to her best friend, Chase, as he listened intently and occasionally laughed. They both lived in the inn. Chase's parents were long time friends with Maya's and helped them run the place (not that they got many visitors). She was trying to explain to him how she had almost perfected her hot chocolate recipe (if only it hadn't come out purple) when she slipped on the ice. Chase, used to it, caught her in his arms, steadied her, and they continued walking as if nothing had happened.

Beside Gill, Anissa was animatedly telling Jin about how a cup of her new soup would easily cure the colds they would surely all get from being out in the bitter weather. Ignoring her, he decided to listen to what Luna was telling her sister. "Looks like Chase saved his _girlfriend_ again," she said. Candace smiled but was not very taken with gossiping so didn't respond.

Luna contented herself with giggling happily. Gill scoffed at her but she ignored him. Toby and Renee brought up the rear. They were happily catching snowflakes on their tongues, stopping every so often to make snow angels. Gill would have joined them had Luna not had a firm grip on his arm. She seemed to think he would try for an escape.

They arrived at the bottom of the hill when Luke, Owen, and Phoebe were already revving up for their first ride down it. Luke and Owen had hopped onto a sled together. They pushed off and started accelerating down the hill. Unfortunately they had forgotten to look. Phoebe screamed but it was too late. They were heading straight for Maya and Chase and neither of the two was paying attention. When Chase finally noticed the two boys, who were screaming as they darted towards them, he tried to pull Maya out of the way but to no avail. The sled crashed into the pair of them and they all toppled over into a pile of limbs and snow.

Gill rolled his eyes as Luna sniggered. Jin and Anissa seemed prepared to take them straight to the Clinic. They waited for someone to speak. Luke broke the silence. "That. Was. Awesome!" he exclaimed dramatically, trying to untangle himself from the mess of people.

Owen, stumbling to get up, grinned and punched the air. "Totally!" he agreed.

Maya, on the other hand, seemed less than amused. Her lip was quivering and she was glaring at Luke and Owen with such anger that it made them flinch. "That really hurt," she muttered resenfully, trying to hold back the tears.

Chase was grumbling and seemed almost as angry as Maya. He helped her up. "Did you guys even look?"

Luke and Owen glanced at each other than stared at the ground. "Umm… well…" Luke began.

"No…" Owen finished.

The two looked away from Chase's pointed glare. But Luke's guilty expression was replaced with one of shock as he was hit in the face by a snowball. He looked up at Maya who was smirking victoriously and moving to make another. Luke's eyes narrowed. He hastily made a snowball of his own, and chucked it at Maya. The little girl easily dodged it but it did manage to hit Chase in the face.

A momentary silence followed while all the kids stared at each other. Then Chase grinned. "Oh, it's on!" he exclaimed. Seconds later everyone was chucking snowballs at each other, racing around in an all out snowball war.

Gill inwardly groaned. He had managed to escape from Luna who was currently chasing Toby, throwing snowball after snowball. Renee and Anissa were tossing snowballs at her as she expertly dodged them. Even Jin threw a weak snowball at Phoebe. The girl easily dodged it, but it was still an attempt. Gill sighed and tried to escape, but he was hit in the arm. He sputtered and looked over his shoulder to see innocent little Candace smiling at him. He gave in, scooping up some snow up and aiming for the blue haired girl. She giggled and dodged.

They probably ran about for two hours, throwing snowball after snowball at each other, laughing the whole time. By the time the war was over all twelve kids, even Luke, were lying on their backs in the snow, panting. By this time the snow had ceased and the sun was shining down on them, just beginning to set.

"Let's make a snowman," Renee suggested, blowing a strand of dark hair out of her face.

"Okay!" Luke agreed in his squeaky little voice. Luke and Owen were up again, having a competition of who could make a bigger snowman. The other kids contented themselves with making snowballs of more appropriate sizes. Maya rolled hers around and, with the help of Chase and Toby, managed to lift it onto the base they had created, leaving Renee to construct the head.

Gill helped Luna and Anissa construct a slightly smaller snowman (or, as Luna said, a snow girl) while Candace and Phoebe scavenged for materials. Meanwhile, Jin was making sure that Luke and Owen didn't kill themselves as they struggled to push the two now massive snowballs around.

Finally the pair gave up. It was obvious that Luke's snowball was smaller than Owen's and he sadly admitted defeat, hanging his head in shame.

"Maybe we could combine your two snowballs to make a massive snowman," Phoebe suggested. Owen's eyes widened and he grinned at Luke who seemed just as excited about the idea. But the other kids weren't so sure how they were going to lift Luke's huge ball of snow onto Owen's. The blue haired boy tried to push it over, but it was quite apparent that he couldn't move it. It took Chase, Owen, Luke, and Toby together just to move the snowball over to the bigger one. They were all exhausted just from that.

"We'll never, ever do it! Just make a smaller snowball, Luke," Luna whined.

Luke shook his head. "Don't worry, Luna, I know we can do this." She rolled her eyes and Gill was pretty sure he heard her mutter 'doubt it' under her breath.

"On the count of three," Phoebe urged. "One… Two… Three!" And the kids pushed with all their might, hardly lifting the snowball an inch up.

"Come on, we can do it," Luke said confidently.

"No we can't," Luna argued. Gill rather agreed with Luna but just when he was about to give up, Owen, like the muscle man he would soon become, gave one final heave and the snowball rolled into place. They all sighed in relief and began patting down the snow. Luna climbed up and added a rather disproportional head. After the snowmen were completed the kids used twigs, rocks, and whatever else they could find to use as faces and arms. As the final touch some of them (much to Jin and Anissa's dismay) took off their own hats and scarves to add to their creations. They all stood back to admire their handiwork.

"It's just like a little snowman family," Maya squealed. Gill squinted at the three snowmen. He supposed it did look a bit like a family, if it was normal for the father to be twice as tall as the mother.

"I want to have a family just like that someday," Maya mused, clutching Chase's arm. Even though his cheeks were already rosy from the cold Gill didn't miss his blush.

"Me too," Renee agreed with a smile. Anissa nodded and stared thoughtfully off into space, as if imagining what it would be like.

"Whatever," Luke muttered; he had a rather awkward expression on his face. Gill realized that it was getting colder. He felt Luna give a violent shiver beside him and saw Owen start to shake as well. Perhaps that was because he had given his hat, mittens, and scarf to his massive snowman. This didn't skip Anissa's gaze.

"It's getting rather cold and the sun is setting. We should go inside and warm up."

"Aww… but _Anissa_," Luke whined.

"Anissa's right, if we don't go inside soon, we'll all get sick," Jin agreed.

Luke groaned but everyone else seemed rather tired and ready to warm up.

"Let's go to the inn. I can make hot chocolate for everybody," Maya offered. More than one person cringed.

"We'll have Yolanda do it," Chase assured them quietly.

To their intense relief they arrived to find that Yolanda had already made hot chocolate and a warm meal of soup and grilled cheese for them. They ate it quickly; they were all so hungry that no one spoke until the food was gone.

After dinner Colleen led them into one of the rooms and put a movie on TV. Gill watched it with interest; he'd always been a fan of A Land Before Time. When he heard a deep relaxed breathing, he turned his head to find that Luna was fast asleep with her head on his shoulder and most of his friends (perhaps they really were his friends) had also dozed off. Owen, Luke, and Phoebe were cuddled in a ball on the floor. Chase and Maya were snuggled in a red armchair and Candace was snoozing on the other side of them. Renee was murmuring in her sleep beside a happily napping Toby. Only Jin and Anissa remained awake, whispering quietly to each other. Gill thought they were all very childish, falling asleep at only eight o'clock. Only babies went to bed that early. He was determined to stay awake for the entire movie. But even he couldn't deny how heavy his eyelids felt.

Twenty minutes later when Colleen and Jake entered the room they found all of the kids sound asleep. Colleen giggled and ran to grab her camera.

~HM~

Gill carefully brushed the dust off of a photograph of himself and some of the residents in their childhood, all fast asleep. He didn't know why but he kept the photo in his bedroom. After returning it to its place on the wall he admired it for a moment. A knock on the door interrupted him. He grumpily went down to answer it. Several of the neighborhood kids stood outside, beaming up at him.

"Tell Vivian to come outside! The snow is great!" Roy, Owen's son, exclaimed.

Gill smirked to himself. "Vivian, the other kids are here," he called.

"Tell them to go away, I don't want to go outside," his daughter answered.

"_Vivian_," he warned.

Grumbling, she marched down the stairs.

Still smirking, Gill walked into his living room.

"What was that all about?" his wife, Luna, asked.

"Just Vivian's friends," Gill explained.

"Fine! I'll come but you guys are all so mean!" they heard their daughter shout.

"Like father, like daughter," Luna said quietly with a sparkle in her eyes.

Gill scowled at her. "I just hope she doesn't end up marrying that Roy."

**Thanks for reading! Also, thanks to Moonlit Dreaming for betaing this for me (I'm don't think thats a verb). It helped a lot. Maybe I'll do more little one shots like this with the islanders as kids because it was so much fun. If anyone was wondering where Julius or Kathy were in my mind they aren't on the island yet. I think that Julius comes for a short time a couple years later and Kathy moves there when she is about fifteen. So I hope that clears that up. If you have time, I'd love it if you reviewed. Thanks!**


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